This year may turn out to be different, but in their 40-season history the Seahawks have never made the playoffs after starting 0-2. They are now faced with that grim statistic after losing to the Green Bay Packers 27-17 Sunday night at Lambeau Field in a game they could have — and probably would have — won had they not made so many mistakes, starting with gifting Green Bay 10 points off penalties (12 men on the field twice) and ending in controversy after a late Russell Wilson interception (box).

Essential Moment

After trailing 10-0 and 13-3, the Seahawks stormed back behind Wilson to lead 17-13. Green Bay rallied for a 24-17 edge with a little more than six minutes remaining in the fourth, but the Seahawks still had a chance — until Green Bay’s Jayrone Elliott made a one-handed interception of a short Wilson pass over the middle at the Seattle 42.

Elliott, though, fumbled and, in the ensuing scramble, Seattle guard Justin Britt emerged from the pile with the ball — even handing it to an official. But Green Bay was awarded possession, to Pete Carroll’s astonishment, and turned the exchange into Mason Crosby’s fourth field goal and Seattle’s first 0-2 start since 2011.

“Justin Britt had the football,” Carroll insisted. “I was disappointed in the way that turned out. They (the officials) declared that Green Bay had the ball, but they didn’t. Justin Britt did a great job to get that ball back.”

Offense

The Seahawks had a terrible first half offensively, trailing 10-0 before gaining a single yard. In fact, when Green Bay took a 10-0 lead, Seattle had a -3 yards in total offense.

The Seahawks failed early to establish a running game as Marshawn Lynch gained only 29 yards on 12 carries. But in the second half, Wilson started making plays with his legs, the big factor in his two touchdown passes, five yards to Fred Jackson and 13 yards to Doug Baldwin. Midway through the third quarter, Wilson had better stats than Aaron Rodgers, but the late interception left him with a 91.8 passer rating on 19 of 30 completions for 206 yards.

Wilson — or offensive Darrell Bevel — made almost no use of TE Jimmy Graham, targeted just twice. Carroll insisted postgame the option was there, but Graham finished with one catch for 11 yards.

Lynch, consistently smacked down before he could get going, with 41 rushing yards on 15 carries while Wilson ran for 78 on 10 with a long gain of 17.

The Seahawks accumulated 324 yards of total offense and averaged 5.7 yards per play to Green Bay’s 5.6.

Defense

The Seahawks handed the Packers 10 of their first 13 points in the first half as a direct result of penalties, including three offsides calls on DT Michael Bennett plus a 52-yard pass interference penalty on CB Richard Sherman that set up a Crosby field goal.

The Seahawks held Rodgers to 249 passing yards, but couldn’t keep the Green Bay quarterback from going 9-for-9 in the fourth quarter when the Packers won the game with 11 points to Seattle’s zero. Rodgers threw touchdown passes to James Jones and Richard Rodgers and still hasn’t been picked off at Lambeau Field since 2012.

The Seahawks have allowed 30.5 points per game in their first two contests after allowing 15.9 last season.

Words

“We put ourselves in position to win this game and played some really good ball. We had our chances but gave them the ball on the screen (Wilson’s interception) and they put it away. They did a nice job of finishing. Right now we’re not playing good enough ball. We’re not as clean as we need to be. We need to go home and start over again and get this thing rolling” — Carroll.

“We had a great opponent tonight, but we had a great fourth quarter. Teams coming in here know it’s going to be a tough night” — Aaron Rodgers.

Noteworthy

LB K.J. Wright was ejected with 6:42 remaining in the game when he yanked the helmet off a Green Bay player . . .The Seahawks, who had beaten Green Bay three consecutive times (including playoffs), are 9-7 all-time against Green Bay, including 1-5 at Lambeau Field . . . Seattle’s only win there came in 1999, Mike Holmgren’s first season as head coach . . . Seahawks are now 13-2 in prime-time contests under Carroll and 19-12 all-time on Sunday night.

Next

The Seahawks play their first game of the season at CenturyLink Field next Sunday when they host the Chicago Bears. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:25 p.m. on CBS.

YourThoughts

Tha Row

$21 million is a lot to pay for a guy who showed up for one quarter and lost the game with an interception.

Lodowick

Well, the better team won. It’s clear that Seattle won last time because of three fortuitous events: home field, an injured Aaron Rodgers and great fortune on a number of plays. Green Bay won tonight in spite of missing it’s top running back and top wide receiver. A healthy QB and home field was enough. It’s best now for Hawks to switch their talk from “how much can I be paid” to “how can I improve my performance on the field”. Three straight losses now.

ll9956

I expected the Hawks would lose tonight and they did. It stings. While there were some good moments, there were a lot of bad ones. Why can’t the coaches teach Michael Bennett not to commit offsides penalties? I think his total is FIVE in the first two games. This game was arguably the worst in Richard Sherman’s career to date: He got burned for a long TD pass and then was tagged with a 52-yard PI penalty. Speaking of penalties they were penalized TWICE for having 12 men on the field. TWICE!!! Total penalties, 92 yards.

After losing to St. Louis the Hawks said all the problems were fixable. So why didn’t they fix them? I know it’s a long season, and hope springs eternal. But as of now I have trouble picturing the Hawks making the playoffs let alone the SB. As I’ve said befofre, I hope I’m wrong. Perhaps Kam will take pity on his teammates and come back.

Why did we make a trade for one of the arguably best TE’s in the game if the Seahawks are not going to capitalize on him and use him?

Why do we have a much more athletic offense in our receiving corps this year and yet less play making ability?

Why is the defense playing like dogs on a chain and not being released to go after the QBs and pressuring, getting in the face of the opposing teams?

Why is it that our back field of Boom feels more like the swiss cheese of Doom?

Why has Beast mode felt more like Least mode?

Why does it feel that this team as a whole is just 1 step off from being a team over an individual?

Why are we 0-2 to start the season without 1 sure fire explanation ie a coach a player, the whole team appears to be in limbo waiting on something?

What is the purpose in lacing up and gearing up to get on the field if your not playing like you seem to actually care to get out there and play?

With all the contracts done for the most party, and all these players getting their due for the most part this year, why is it that none of them seem to give a damn now the they’ve gotten paid?

Is the coaching on this team running on past glories of yesteryear and forgetting that they’ve got games yet still to play?

OK, lot’s of questions about the bad start to this season. Lot’s of feelings of this team so far has shown me nothing about the talent that they appeared to posses in the off season as the deals were worked and drafts made etc. Something is going to change over the course of the next few weeks I am certain but if it keeps being played out like this the thing that’s going to be changing is the channel on my TV as I won’t watch this debacle by the Seahawks again and again. Too many years of lame totally losing seasons in my life and heart ache over and over to finally get a competitive team and a Super Bowl win to go back to mediocrity and the feeling of WE SUCK AGAIN…

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